Abstract

The present study is done to understand the frequent change in the platform dynamics of river Ganga from Mirzapur to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh. The study is based on sequential river platform maps generated from the time series multispectral datasets, which revealed a periodic pattern of evolution of the river system over the study area. The study depends upon using Landsat sensors that are Trade Marks (TM), Market Stabilization Scheme (MSS), and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) acquired through the years 1975 to 2015. The present work deals with Meandering index and Braiding index, which determines the sinuosity, tortuosity, and braiding of the river Ganga to investigate and classify the river into straight, sinuous, and meander category. The study reveals that the sinuosity was increased from 1.38 to 1.56 from 1975 to 2015, whereas the braiding index is observed as 0.6 to 0.26 at one of the Reaches within the study area from 1975 to 2015, which reveals that the river is exhibiting braiding as well as meandering pattern. The study reveals that the platform of river Ganga is shifting continuously, and the factors behind the shifting of river course are natural as well as anthropogenic.

References

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